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Comment by zokier | Hacker News Reader

To be completely clear, I think this sort of short expiry for devices is bullshit. BUT

But, it was completely predictable thing, the schools knew perfectly well that they would expire. Saying that the expiry "jeopardizes students’ educations" is straight out dishonest when its just poor planning that is jeopardizing anything. This feels bit like people buying disposable cameras and then complaining that they can't change film on them. Yes, the expiry on Chromebooks is bit more arbitrary. But nevertheless it was something that would have been very clear if they did basic due diligence when purchasing the devices.

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Yes, the expiry on Chromebooks is bit more arbitrary

It honestly isn’t. Chromebooks are very shoddily built. I have seen tons of them fail long before the end of the support window. Disposable cameras are a much more apt comparison than you realized.

What does hardware build quality (which varies between chromebook models, the expensive ones are very sturdy) have to do with software support lifecycle?

> Chromebooks are very shoddily built

They aren't all that bad. I have one Dell 730-8301 I bought in early 2014, and four Dell 3120 (built 2015), all still humming along no problem. They're running as servers now but for many years they saw conventional laptop duty.

The Acers of that era were pure trash, however.

who's expecting a long lifetime from a $400 laptop that's used daily by kids?

Parents and environmentalists are, apparently.

Some kids are well behaved and take care of their stuff.

Especially when you grow up poor.

they got what as they paid

Folks raised similar cries around Pixel 3 and 4 EOL. Google doesn’t budge.

The consumers being schools should have more power behind than the consumers of Pixels. Maybe it doesn't matter anyways but it's worth a try.

Pixel 6 and later moved the EOL from 3 years to 5. That's still imperfect, and remains less than iPhone, but it's a step.

Because consumers had talked after lukewarm reception from Pixel buyers.

They also removed "original quality storage" after Pixel 3, pixel 4 didn't have a fingerprint sensor in favor of face sensor (terrible idea) and 5, if I'm not mistaken, was not a flagship.

Google had a great product that was different and slowly nerfed it. Now it's just one more competitor but nothing to write home about.

They lost a lot of consumer loyalty of the users who wouldn't have ever considered an iPhone (walled garden) in the first place.

I did not know Pixel phones have EOL built in. This is a deal-breaker for me.

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